What is priceless in Oulu? Artists Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen invite the people of Oulu to co-create The Most Valuable Clock in the World. This ‘valuable’ artwork, like our response to climate change, will examine how our personal preferences can be reconciled with societal needs and communal demands.

The value of this unique clock will be based on precious moments donated by Oulu residents and will be carried out in collaboration with volunteers, nature experts, and three STEAM schools. 

The Most Valuable Clock in the World is part of the international Climate Clock art project curated by Alice Sharp (Invisible Dust UK) and produced by Claudia Woolgar in collaboration with the Oulu2026 team. Climate Clock is one of the most significant productions of Oulu’s European Capital of Culture year 2026, where in addition to Kalleinen and Kochta-Kalleinen’s participatory artwork, six international artists will create permanent artworks exploring the nature of time and climate change for the Oulu region and Oulu city centre. The six other artists will be announced in the spring of 2025.

Art connecting Oulu residents

Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen are significant artists based in Helsinki who have shown their work extensively internationally including Sydney, Chicago, Teipei and Mexico City. They will create The Most Valuable Clock in the World together with the people of Oulu. The clock will consist of precious personal and nature-based moments donated by locals. The result will be a two-meter electro-mechanical clock displaying these moments in hour, minute, and second cycles on an integrated LED screen.

For the minute hand, locals are invited to donate personally significant, recurring everyday moments. The artists will select sixty minute-long moments, which will be recorded by a filming team. 

The second hand will consist of one-second glimpses of special moments, filmed by locals themselves.

The hour hand will shift focus from humans to other species, showcasing local Oulu moments in nature that may in the future no longer be taken for granted due to climate change. One such moment will be selected for each month of the year. All chosen moments will be documented throughout 2025.

The project will culminate in June 2026 with the opening of the other Climate Clock artworks, when The Most Valuable Clock in the World will also be unveiled to the public. The clock will then go on tour to Haukipudas, Kiiminki, Oulunsalo, Yli-Ii, and Ylikiiminki before being donated to the city of Oulu. The exact permanent location of the clock will be announced later.

Ways to participate

The open call starts on August 12, 2024, and participants can sign up via an online form. There are several ways to get involved, and all registrations are through the form found in the link.

• Minute hand: Describe an important, recurring everyday moment you’d like to donate. The artists will select 60 moments to be filmed.
• Second hand: Film a one-second glimpse of a special moment and send the clip to the artists.
• Hour hand: Describe a valuable natural moment that may not be taken for granted in the future due to climate change.
• Clock builders: If you’re interested in the physical construction of the clock, you can join the volunteer team that will design and build the clock under the guidance of the artists.
• Dinner talks: Five Dinner for Twelve events will be held in collaboration with the Arctic Food Lab programme during the Autumn of 2024, discussing the most valuable things in Oulu over a good meal. Some of the moments documented for the clock will be selected based on these dinner conversations. The dinners are free, and places are filled in the order of registration. Dates: The Most Valuable Clock in the World :: Oulu2026 

Join us in creating something unique and valuable! The time is ticking – let’s start the clock!

Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen
Internationally recognized artist duo Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen have 20 years of experience in participatory contemporary art. They are known for their diverse works, such as the Complaints Choir currently being exhibited at Kiasma in 2024 and the Final Scenes of Disaster Movies film work that opened the 2023 Helsinki Festival. Their art has been showcased worldwide, including at the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo. In 2022, they published the book Conversation Park – A Public Space Game, which explores participatory art. The duo has been awarded the Ars Fennica and the AVEK Media Art Award.

Climate Clock
Climate Clock is one of the most significant productions of the Oulu2026 European Capital of Culture year, where art intertwines with the theme of climate change, highlighting the nature of time and global warming in Northern Finland. Six permanent artworks will be located in Haukipudas, Kiiminki, Oulu city centre, Oulunsalo, Yli-Ii, and Ylikiiminki. Alongside these permanent artworks is The Most Valuable Clock in the World, a new artwork co-created with the respective local communities by renowned artists Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen.

Climate Clock’s seven artwork explore the tyranny of our fast modern day time and how to capture slower time rooted in the natural world. Creating a permanent sculpture route in Oulu, one of the earth’s Northernmost cities, warming at four times the rest of the earth and part of nature’s winter mirror to climate change. Climate Clock artworks will be located – with the exception of Oulu city – in natural settings such as forests, rivers and seashores, highlighting local pride in the surroundings. In each location, the artworks will invite us to consider what we can do now, in the present moment, to preserve and strengthen our connection to nature. The commissioned artists will work with scientists as they develop their work, collaborating on ideas across the disciplines and gaining new insights into the science behind environmental issues in the region.

Alice Sharp, Climate Clock Curator and art and science advisor
Alice Sharp set up art and environmental organisation Invisible Dust in the UK in 2009, working with leading artists and scientists internationally ‘making the invisible visible’ contemporary artworks exploring our environment and climate change. Alice is a prominent international speaker including the British Council’s ‘Circular Cultures’ Athens, Columbia University New York, ‘Insider Magazine’ USA event attracting an 85,000 audience, Davos and the UNDP. Alongside ‘Climate Clock’ Invisible Dust is currently curating ‘Breathe’ by Dryden Goodwin in Lahore Pakistan, ‘Wild Eye’ in the UK with artists Shezad Dawood, Paul Morrison, Jeremy Deller and Emma Smith, ‘Forecast Turkey’ in Izmir in 2025 and a commission for Women Of the World festival, Manchester UK in 2024. @AliceWSharp @Invisible_Dust

Claudia Woolgar, Climate Clock international producer
International producer Claudia Woolgar was engaged by Oulu2026 to assist in shaping the programme for the first Bid Book. Since then, she has been developing the international flagship projects. She has considerable international experience, including steering the complex public art project, the 11 Fountains, for Leeuwarden-Friesland European Capital of Culture 2018 in its early stages.

The European Capital of Culture selection is made by an EU-appointed expert panel. Another European Capital of Culture 2026 is Trencin from Slovakia. For many cities, being The European Capital of Culture has led to long-lasting positive changes in culture, tourism, co-operation and urban landscape. The capitals of culture have been named since 1985 and are funded by the Creative Europe Programme. The nomination emphasizes the diversity of European cultures and enhances cultural exchange throughout Europe.

For more information:

Artists:
Tellervo Kalleinen & Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen
Email: studiokalleinen@gmail.com

Oulu2026-team:
Ulla Viskari-Perttu
Executive Producer
+358 40 624 8362

Mirja Syrjälä
Community Coordinator
+358 40 502 9633

The Most Valuable Clock in the World -website
Climate Clock -website
Photos of the artists are available here (Google Drive).